Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
Trade paperback cover of The Long Way Home. Art by Jo Chen
Publication information
Publisher	Dark Horse Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Genre	Horror[1]
Publication date	March 14, 2007 – January 19, 2011
No. of issues	40 (core series) 3 (one-shots)
Main character(s)	Scooby Gang
Creative team
Created by	Joss Whedon
Written by	Joss Whedon Brian K. Vaughan Drew Goddard Jane Espenson Brad Meltzer and others
Penciller(s)	Georges Jeanty Karl Moline
Inker(s)	Andy Owens
Colorist(s)	Dave Stewart Michelle Madsen
Collected editions
The Long Way Home	ISBN 1593078226
No Future for You	ISBN 159307963X
Wolves at the Gate	ISBN 1595821651
Time of Your Life	ISBN 1595823107
Predators and Prey	ISBN 1595823425
Retreat	ISBN 1595824154
Twilight	ISBN 1595825584
Last Gleaming	ISBN 1595826106

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight is a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics from 2007 to 2011. The series serves as a canonical^[2] continuation of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and follows the events of that show's final televised season.^[3] It is produced by Joss Whedon, who wrote or co-wrote three of the series arcs and several one-shot stories. The series was followed by Season Nine in 2011.

The series was originally supposed to consist of about 25 issues,^[4] but eventually expanded to a 40-issue run. The series also spawned a handful of spin-off titles, including a Tales of the Vampires follow-up and one-shots focusing on Willow and Riley.^[5]

The success of the series prompted IDW Publishing and Joss Whedon to publish a concurrent continuation of the Angel television series, titled Angel: After the Fall, and a Spike comic book series, which bridges some aspects of continuity between After the Fall and Season Eight.^[6] A motion comic version of the series debuted in 2010.^[7]

Plot

A year after the end of the television series, Buffy and Xander now lead command-central, which is situated at a citadel in Scotland. At their disposal are a wide array of psychics, seers, witches, and Slayers,^[8] along with a vast amount of technology, revealed to be the result of Buffy robbing a Swiss bank to acquire the funds.^[9] There are 1,800 Slayers worldwide according to Buffy, almost 500 of whom are working with the Scoobies, separated into 10 squads. Squads include Andrew's in Southern Italy,^[10] Giles' in England,^[11] Vi's in New York City,^[12] Robin's in Cleveland, Ohio,^[13] and another led by Rona in Chicago, Illinois.^[14] For Buffy's protection and because her name is feared worldwide, two decoys are put in place: one partying in Rome and one on a mission in demonic caverns.^[15] Buffy now relies heavily on Willow, whose character arc sees her under the tutelage of a powerful demon called Saga Vasuki.^[9][16] Under Saga Vasuki, Willow's power has grown phenomenally; for example, she can now fly and cast extremely complicated and large-scale spells.^[8]

In the wake of Sunnydale's destruction, elements within the U.S. government view the expanded Slayers and the Scooby Gang as international terrorists and characterize Buffy as a "charismatic, uncompromising and completely destructive" leader. General Voll, a member of a mystically aware Initiative-like government project, describes fear of their resources, power, and ideology.^[8] The government has teamed with Sunnydale survivor/powerful witch Amy Madison and Season 6 villain Warren Mears in the hopes of bringing Buffy down.^[10] Simultaneously, an evil British socialite Slayer called Lady Genevieve Savidge plots to usurp Buffy's place in the Slayer hierarchy,^[13] and a shrewd cabal of Japanese vampires scheme to reverse the global activation of Potential Slayers in "Chosen".^[17] The appearances of these villains are connected to "Twilight", the enigmatic Big Bad of the season, a masked person who views the expanded ranks of Slayers as a threat to humanity and wants to destroy them, and bring about an end to all magic on Earth.^[14] It later transpires that like Amy and Warren, Buffy's ex-boyfriend Riley Finn is also loyal to Twilight,^[18] though Riley turns out to have been Buffy's double agent.^[19]

Halfway through the season, ditzy vampire Harmony Kendall rises to fame as a reality TV star and ushers in a new pro-vampire, anti-Slayer world order.^[20] Under attack from Twilight and other demons as well as militaries across the world, the various Slayer squads (including Faith) reconvene in retreat from their enemy. Because Twilight can now track the group through their use of magic, Buffy and her friends relocate to Tibet to learn from Oz how to suppress magical natures for witches and Slayers alike. Giles and Buffy are both concerned with the extent to which they rely on Willow, worried she may go overboard again as in Season Six;^[21] Buffy's fears are in part justified by her visit to the future (a crossover with the Whedon miniseries Fray) where she was forced to kill a future Dark Willow.^[18] Following the fray with Twilight, in which many Slayers were killed, Buffy developed abilities similar to those of Twilight.

A subplot involves the repercussions of Dawn's college relationship with a boy named Kenny (described as a "thricewise"), whom she cheated on, losing her virginity to his roommate.^[9] Consequently, Dawn has been cursed with mystical transformations: first into a giant,^[8] then a centaur,^[12] and finally a living doll until she apologizes to Kenny and breaks the spell.^[22] Among the core group, Buffy is for a time romantically drawn to another woman: a Slayer named Satsu, and Xander to Slayer Renée;^[17] Willow's relationship with the core group is more estranged, while she protectively withholds Kennedy from her friends.^[9] Kennedy is unaware of the sexual aspect of Willow's relationship with Saga Vasuki.^[18] Giles and Buffy, at odds, stop speaking with one another. Giles works with Faith to prevent more Slayers from going rogue.^[23] Although Buffy comes to feel that her only compatible mate is Xander, and is upset to learn that he truly loves Dawn,^[24] she and Angel succumb to their desires for one another upon their reunion,^[25] though the extent to which they were in control of their actions is uncertain.^[26]

In the series' penultimate arc, Twilight is revealed to be Buffy's former lover, Angel. Angel attempts to explain that his Twilight persona was used to unify the anti-Slayer movement, thus limiting the potential destruction they could have caused working independently.^[25] His secondary goal was to push Buffy's development so that the two of them could reunite romantically and ascend to a higher plane of existence, itself called Twilight.^[27] However, whatever magical effect Angel was under seemed to wane after Buffy realised she was needed back on Earth to assist her friends as demons poured in from other dimensions to destroy the old universe. At the last moment, Buffy's other love, Spike, arrives in a futuristic ship to announce he has a solution to the problem at hand.^[26] In the final arc, "Last Gleaming", Spike's information leads them to the source both of magic and of Twilight's power, a mystical "seed" buried beneath Sunnydale. Giles plans to destroy it, but Twilight possesses Angel and compels him to kill Giles by snapping his neck. Distraught, Buffy smashes the seed herself. Twilight is stopped but magic is also removed from the universe. Though Slayers and vampires retain their powers, witches for example are left entirely powerless. Subsequently, Willow breaks up with Kennedy and Faith inherits Giles' estate and attempts to begin Angel's rehabilitation. A pariah in the community of Slayers and former witches, Buffy moves to San Francisco where she lives as a houseguest at Dawn and Xander's apartment, and resumes her former duties as Slayer: patrolling at night for vampires.

Writers and story arcs

Joss Whedon serves as "executive producer" for the series across every issue, giving his other writers notes on characterization, continuity and his overall concept as he would when overseeing Buffy as a television series. Whedon wrote the first story arc ("The Long Way Home", #1–4), the fourth ("Time of Your Life", #16–19), the final story arc ("Last Gleaming", #36–40), and several intermediary one-shot stories (#5, #10, #11, "Willow", and #31). Comic and television writer Brian K. Vaughan became the first guest writer on the series, writing the second story arc "No Future for You" (#6–9). While Vaughan was not a "Buffyverse" staff member, he was a fan of both series (particularly the character of Faith) and Joss Whedon himself was a fan of Vaughan's Marvel Comics series Runaways, on which he served as writer during the period Vaughan wrote "No Future for You." Former Buffy and Angel writer Drew Goddard wrote the series' third arc, "Wolves at the Gate" (#12–15). Goddard first became a Buffy writer in its final season, starting with the episode "Selfless" and finishing with the Angel episode "The Girl in Question", which itself obliquely hints at the life of Buffy post-season seven. Goddard went on to become a writer for the movie Cloverfield and acclaimed American dramas Lost and Alias (all working alongside producer J. J. Abrams) while also penning the story "Antique" for canonical Buffy comic book Tales of the Vampires, which he references in "Wolves at the Gate".

Film, comics and television writer-producer Jeph Loeb wrote issue #20 of the series ("After These Messages... We'll Be Right Back!". Loeb had previously been involved with Whedon in the conception of Buffy the Animated Series, which never came to be. Following Loeb are Buffyverse alumni Jane Espenson, Doug Petrie,^[28] Drew Z. Greenberg, and Steven S. DeKnight as well as comic book writer Jim Krueger, who each wrote an issue between issues #21 and #25 ("Predators and Prey"), which is a single arc told from a number of different perspectives. These one-shots follow the perspectives of Harmony (#21, Espenson), Satsu/Kennedy (#22, DeKnight), Buffy/Andrew (#23, Greenberg), Giles/Faith (#24, Krueger) and a Xander/Dawn issue which will also reveal more about Twilight (#25, Petrie).^[29] Jane Espenson returned for a five-issue arc involving the character of Oz for issues #26–30, titled "Retreat"^[30] and also wrote a one-shot about Riley. Joss Whedon returned to write two one-shots, "Willow: Goddesses and Monsters" and issue #31, "Turbulence". Brad Meltzer, author of several New York Times best-selling books and later both Identity Crisis and Justice League for DC Comics wrote the penultimate story arc of Season Eight, "Twilight", which is issues #32–35. Whedon himself resumes authorship for the final five issues (#36–40, "Last Gleaming") of the series, bringing Season Eight to an end.^[31]

Dark Horse Presents has also offered several short, canonical side stories to the mix. "Harmony Bites" by Espenson and Moline is a fictional episode of Harmony Kendall's television series, tying into issue #21. "Vampy Cat Play Friend" is a fictional television commercial tying in with issue #22, written by Steven S. DeKnight and illustrated by Camilla d'Errico. Joss Whedon teamed up with Jo Chen to produce "Always Darkest", a depiction of Buffy's terrible nightmares, and Espenson teamed up with Moline again to produce "Harmony Comes to the Nation", a fictional interview for The Colbert Report where Harmony lays out her ambitions, both tying in with Jane Espenson's "Retreat" arc. Jackie Kessler wrote "Tales of the Vampires: Carpe Noctem", a two-part ministory with the previously unseen characters Ash and Cyn, about the consequences of Harmony Kendall's television series from a vampire's point of view.

Publication

Issues

One-shots

Trade paperbacks

The issues were collected together into trade paperbacks: